Discover our selection of screen print artworks by emerging artists online today. Our collection of prints includes artwork by some of the most talented contemporary artists, as well as art historical masters.
Screen prints, also known as silkscreen prints, are created by pushing ink through a mesh screen onto paper or canvas. Artists block out areas with stencils, allowing only selected ink to pass through to form the image. By repeating this process with different colours, they can build up layers to achieve a rich, painterly effect.
Begin with our popular figurative screen prints – recognisable objects or places in both referential and highly original styles.
Alternatively, explore our abstract collection, featuring unique screen prints for art collectors – repeating patterns, psychedelic dreamscapes and sweeping planes of colour.
The History of Screen Prints
Screen printing originated during the Chinese imperial Song Dynasty between 960 and 1279 AD. Originally, the technique involved stretching silk mesh across a frame and using stencils to create patterns on fabric. The technique later spread to Japan before reaching Europe in the 18th century, where it was initially used for decorative and commercial purposes, like wallpaper and textiles.
In the early 20th century, American artists began to explore screen printing as a fine art medium. The technique gained traction in the 1930s, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded public art projects, making screen printing more accessible to artists. In the 1960s, Pop Art icons like Andy Warhol fused high and low art by employing the method for portraits of Marilyn Monroe and his iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans.
Some of Warhol’s limited edition screenprint art is for sale on Rise Art – from his whimsical series of cats to his immediately recognisable Mao (1972) portrait.
Today, screen printing remains popular, with Young British Artists (YBAs) artists like Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst using it in contemporary works. Emin often utilises screen printing for intimate, expressive pieces, such as The Beginning of Me (2012), also available on Rise Art.
Hirst, meanwhile, is known for his vibrant abstract prints and iconic motifs, such as the Spots series, available as an dazzling gold glitter iteration in Proctolin (2009).
You can explore more rare collectable artworks from art historical pioneers and contemporary icons in our curated collection: From Matisse to Banksy: Works by Timeless Masters.
Screen Prints for Sale on Rise Art
Award-winning printmaker Bruce McLean is a leading figure in British contemporary art. Known for his bold colours and expressive shapes, McLean embraces imperfect painterly details, with drips and brushstrokes still evident in his screen prints. In Green Garden with Unknown Flower (2019), McLean creates a botanical scene from abstract mark-making, balanced by contemporary printing techniques.
Likewise, London-based artist Clare Halifax is known for her illustrative screen prints of garden life. French Iris (2022), imitates a traditional botanical study, brought up to date by the use of deep purple ink on the petals of the flowers. At once precise and adrift, the colour application is a playful and experimental approach to the screen print technique.
From the micro to the macro, Anna Marrow’s architectural prints use a bubble-gum colour palette to imbue urban art with a contemporary pop twist. In Marrow’s Playtime (2020), a sunshine yellow canvas is punctuated by a rainbow road, brutalist architecture and a child swinging through enormous trees. The whimsical composition is enhanced by Marrow’s water-based screen-printing technique, allowing the semi-transparent layers to blend together.
